Syfy had initially shown interest in putting together something for Arthur C. Clarke‘s ‘Childhood’s End’ close to a year ago and now it seems that the network will be giving us a six-hour miniseries! Having just announced a slew of shows including ‘The Magicians‘ and recently the miniseries ‘Ascension,’ we’ve been seeing a lot of new scripted content coming to the network.
Right now it looks as if Michael De Luca (‘Dracula Untold‘, ‘The Social Network’) and Akiva Goldsman (‘I Am Legend’, ‘I, Robot’) are on board as producers. The exciting news though is that we have Matthew Graham (‘Doctor Who‘, ‘Life on Mars’) writing the series with Nick Hurran (‘Doctor Who’, ‘Sherlock’) directing! Two ‘Doctor Who’ alumni in charge of an Arthur C. Clarke project? I’m sure that will be of interest to one or two of you out there! Casting has yet to be announced, though I suspect we’ll be seeing that in the near future.
According to Syfy president Dave Howe, “As we aggressively develop scripted programming over a diverse creative landscape, we want our content to reflect the greatest sci-fi stories from the past and the present. The powerful themes of Childhood’s End, from the fearsome price of peace and prosperity, to the very question of what constitutes a human being, remain fascinating and timeless. This will be the most ambitious project for Syfy in many years.”
While some of it can be campy, I love the fact that Syfy is actually returning to science fiction. I just hope they can make it all at the level of quality that the network had once been known for.
Are you excited to see Clarke’s masterpiece whose themes were so popular in much of his later work? Do you think Syfy can do the series the justice that it deserves?
Novel Synopsis:
In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development-and their purpose is to dominate the Earth. Their demands, however, are surprisingly beneficial-end war, poverty, and cruelty. Their presence, rather than signaling the end of humanity, ushers in a golden age-or so it seems.
But it comes at a price. Without conflict, humanity ceases to work toward creative achievement, and culture stagnates. And as the years pass, it becomes more and more clear that the Overlords have a hidden agenda for the evolution of the human race-that may not be as beneficial as it seems.
Source: Blastr
